New Custom Powers

As usual, I would appreciate feedback on balance and whether or not these powers are mechanically sound.

 

Abomination: Unless fully clothed and mute, the character is recognizable as an abomination. Lawful creatures are immediately unfriendly and creatures with lawful divinity are immediately hostile. The character is effectively unable to purchase healing spells from lawful clergy, else be immediately attacked. This effect also grants a -3 on reaction rolls against all neutral creatures. (-4)

note: [I ranked this so highly as a drawback because it prevented Reapers from buying high level heals, Restore Life and Limb, etc. from most towns, forcing low level Reapers to carry forward debilitating injuries. It also makes running into perilous encounters more likely, compounding with Dark Souls to make bottleneck at low tiers. It’s altogether possible to enter a city to buy some gear and be attacked and chased by all their residents].  

Unholy Existence: The character suffers a -2 penalty on all saves made versus lawful divine spells. All attacks from lawful creatures do +1 bonus damage. (-2)

Death’s Call:  each time the deceased character has to roll on the Tampering with Mortality, he must make an additional save vs Death or lose half of the experience gained towards their next level. When this is failed with no experience, the character drops to his previous level, losing half of the experience towards the next level (Ex. A 5th level Reaper with no experience accumulated since their last level will become a 4th level Reaper with ½ the experience needed to get from level 4 to level 5). If dropped to level 0, the character's soul is consigned to hell, forever. (-3)

Death’s Agent: Gain twice the experience from defeated enemies (+2)

Cursed Flesh: Immune to all forms of poisons, curses and disease, gains a +4 bonus to saving throws against Paralysis and Petrification and Death, and gains a +2 bonus to saves versus Spells (+2)

Hurry to the Grave: The character gains a +1 to attack damage against creatures already injured. This bonus becomes +2 at level 7, and +3 at level 13.  (For the purposes of this ability, the character will only know whether or target has full Hit Points) (+1)

Dominate Undeath: The character gains +2 to reaction roll against undead. The character gains the ability to turn undead as a cleric of his level, but unlike Clerics, cannot destroy undead inherently. Instead they use their deformed souls to dominate undead, indefinitely gaining control over the undead  they would otherwise destroy. Dominated undead can no longer be turned - only destroyed. If the character casts spells that require a saving throw versus Death, his targets suffer a -2 penalty on the save. When the character casts necromantic spells (such as animate dead), the spell effects are calculated as if he were two class levels higher than his actual level of experience. (+1½)

Child of the Shadows

Cost Ability
2.5 The character has the ability to disappear in areas of darkness, innately, and in shadows on a proficiency throw of 3+ on 1d20.  In dungeons, the character can escape detection with a proficiency throw of 8+ on 1d20. Whilst in darkness or shadows, the character moves silently and gains an additional +1 bonus to damage. Any lights, magical or otherwise, with sufficient intensity to dispel darkness and shadows will summarily dispel these effects, if the character is within range. 
4 The character has the ability to disappear in areas of darkness, innately, and in shadows on a proficiency throw of 3+ on 1d20.  In dungeons, the character can escape detection with a proficiency throw of 8+ on 1d20. Whilst in darkness or shadows, the character moves silently and gains an additional +1 bonus to attack throws, saving throws and AC, and a +2 bonus to damage.. Any lights, magical or otherwise, with sufficient intensity to dispel darkness and shadows will summarily dispel these effects, if the character is within range. 
8  The character has the ability to disappear in areas of darkness, innately, and in shadows on a proficiency throw of 3+ on 1d20.  In dungeons, the character can escape detection with a proficiency throw of 8+ on 1d20. Whilst in darkness or shadows, the character moves silently and gains an additional +1 bonus to attack throws, saving throws and AC, and a +2 bonus to damage. Any lights, magical or otherwise, with sufficient intensity to dispel darkness and shadows will summarily dispel these effects, if the character is within range. Once daily, the character can take on the aspect of a shadow: they become impervious to non-magic weapons and creatures encountering the character suffer a -3 penalty to surprise rolls. These effects endure while a character remains in shadows and endures for 1 round afterwards, being the direct target of the Light spell will immediately expose the character and end these effects

 

Corrupting Touch: The character gains a +2 to attack rolls against lawful creatures and +1 to attack rolls against neutral creatures with good intentions. (+1)

Reaper’s Momentum: Each kill grants a momentum token, each token granting a +1 to all attack rolls. If in melee, this bonus gains an additional +1 to all attack rolls and +1 AC. The Reaper cannot retreat from melee while he has momentum. Each token can be used to increase cleave range by 5’ up to the maximum combat movement rate of the Reaper. A momentum token is lost each round (every 10 seconds). Each time the Reaper is struck a token is lost. Tokens can be expended to perform additional cleaves (one token per additional cleave), exceeding the max allowed by the fighter’s Hit Die; this does not allow cleaves after effects that explicitly end the combat round (eg. Death Healing). [enhanced Berserkergang] (+2)
 

Requiem: Once per day, after a melee kill, the Reaper can use a spell slot  to curse his weapon to deal an additional 1d6 magical corrosive damage per level of the casting of that spell slot, lasting a number of rounds reflective of the the level of that spell slot (Ex. a 4th level spell slot can deal 4d6 additional corrosive damage for 4 rounds/ 40 seconds). This ability can be used during a combat action, taking the place of a cleave, and allowing the Reaper to continue cleaving afterwards, or at the end of a combat action. If this (+2)

 

 

Abomination: Unless fully clothed and mute, the character is recognizable as an abomination. Lawful creatures are immediately unfriendly and creatures with lawful divinity are immediately hostile. The character is effectively unable to purchase healing spells from lawful clergy, else be immediately attacked. This effect also grants a -3 on reaction rolls against all neutral creatures. (-4)

note: [I ranked this so highly as a drawback because it prevented Reapers from buying high level heals, Restore Life and Limb, etc. from most towns, forcing low level Reapers to carry forward debilitating injuries. It also makes running into perilous encounters more likely, compounding with Dark Souls to make bottleneck at low tiers. It’s altogether possible to enter a city to buy some gear and be attacked and chased by all their residents].

ARCHON: I would probably have rated this -2. Role-playing/reaction penalties tend to be overcome by clever players. For instance, they might purchase a scroll of restore life and limb to get around the penalty. Abomination PCs will end up just staying in a camp outside town and sending henchmen in, etc.

Unholy Existence: The character suffers a -2 penalty on all saves made versus lawful divine spells. All attacks from lawful creatures do +1 bonus damage. (-2)

ARCHON: Seems like -1 power to me. -2 penalty on all saves would be 1 power, +1 damage would be 1 power. But this is limited to lawful divine spells and lawful creatures, so 0.5 and 0.5 to get -1.

Death’s Call: each time the deceased character has to roll on the Tampering with Mortality, he must make an additional save vs Death or lose half of the experience gained towards their next level. When this is failed with no experience, the character drops to his previous level, losing half of the experience towards the next level (Ex. A 5th level Reaper with no experience accumulated since their last level will become a 4th level Reaper with ½ the experience needed to get from level 4 to level 5). If dropped to level 0, the character’s soul is consigned to hell, forever. (-3)

ARCHON: This seems fine.

Death’s Agent: Gain twice the experience from defeated enemies (+2)

ARCHON: This is way under-cost. Since monsters account for 20% of XP on average, this is effectively a +20% bonus on earned XP. If you imagine a character with 2,000 XP to level 2, that means a savings of almost 400 XP - which is the equivalent of somewhere between 3 and 5 class powers.

Cursed Flesh: Immune to all forms of poisons, curses and disease, gains a +4 bonus to saving throws against Paralysis and Petrification and Death, and gains a +2 bonus to saves versus Spells (+2)

ARCHON: This seems fine.

Hurry to the Grave: The character gains a +1 to attack damage against creatures already injured. This bonus becomes +2 at level 7, and +3 at level 13. (For the purposes of this ability, the character will only know whether or target has full Hit Points) (+1)

ARCHON: This seems fine. I would limit it to living and unliving creatures. It shouldn’t work on constructs or elementals.

Dominate Undeath: The character gains +2 to reaction roll against undead. The character gains the ability to turn undead as a cleric of his level, but unlike Clerics, cannot destroy undead inherently. Instead they use their deformed souls to dominate undead, indefinitely gaining control over the undead they would otherwise destroy. Dominated undead can no longer be turned - only destroyed. If the character casts spells that require a saving throw versus Death, his targets suffer a -2 penalty on the save. When the character casts necromantic spells (such as animate dead), the spell effects are calculated as if he were two class levels higher than his actual level of experience. (+1½)

ARCHON: This one seems way under-cost. Turn Undead is 2-4 class powers. Dominating Undead is even more powerful than that. And you’ve added save penalties and necromantic bonuses. I would call this 3 class powers - 1 class power for 1/2 level turn undead, another for 1/2 level turn undead, and another for dominate instead of destroy.

Child of the Shadows
Cost Ability
2.5 The character has the ability to disappear in areas of darkness, innately, and in shadows on a proficiency throw of 3+ on 1d20. In dungeons, the character can escape detection with a proficiency throw of 8+ on 1d20. Whilst in darkness or shadows, the character moves silently and gains an additional +1 bonus to damage. Any lights, magical or otherwise, with sufficient intensity to dispel darkness and shadows will summarily dispel these effects, if the character is within range.

ARCHON: I don’t understand how this power works. Do you automatically move silently, or are able to move silently as your level thief?

4 The character has the ability to disappear in areas of darkness, innately, and in shadows on a proficiency throw of 3+ on 1d20. In dungeons, the character can escape detection with a proficiency throw of 8+ on 1d20. Whilst in darkness or shadows, the character moves silently and gains an additional +1 bonus to attack throws, saving throws and AC, and a +2 bonus to damage… Any lights, magical or otherwise, with sufficient intensity to dispel darkness and shadows will summarily dispel these effects, if the character is within range.
8 The character has the ability to disappear in areas of darkness, innately, and in shadows on a proficiency throw of 3+ on 1d20. In dungeons, the character can escape detection with a proficiency throw of 8+ on 1d20. Whilst in darkness or shadows, the character moves silently and gains an additional +1 bonus to attack throws, saving throws and AC, and a +2 bonus to damage. Any lights, magical or otherwise, with sufficient intensity to dispel darkness and shadows will summarily dispel these effects, if the character is within range. Once daily, the character can take on the aspect of a shadow: they become impervious to non-magic weapons and creatures encountering the character suffer a -3 penalty to surprise rolls. These effects endure while a character remains in shadows and endures for 1 round afterwards, being the direct target of the Light spell will immediately expose the character and end these effects

ARCHON: As above.

Corrupting Touch: The character gains a +2 to attack rolls against lawful creatures and +1 to attack rolls against neutral creatures with good intentions. (+1)

ARCHON: Seems fine.

Reaper’s Momentum: Each kill grants a momentum token, each token granting a +1 to all attack rolls. If in melee, this bonus gains an additional +1 to all attack rolls and +1 AC. The Reaper cannot retreat from melee while he has momentum. Each token can be used to increase cleave range by 5’ up to the maximum combat movement rate of the Reaper. A momentum token is lost each round (every 10 seconds). Each time the Reaper is struck a token is lost. Tokens can be expended to perform additional cleaves (one token per additional cleave), exceeding the max allowed by the fighter’s Hit Die; this does not allow cleaves after effects that explicitly end the combat round (eg. Death Healing). [enhanced Berserkergang] (+2)

ARCHON: This seems really, really overpowered. It’s not unusual for a mid-level fighter to be able to cleave 4 to 6 times per combat round. Gaining tokens per kill and losing 1 token per round will stack up insanely. In addition, at a certain level of accuracy against weak foes, you can spend a token to take an extra cleave, knowing you will kill the foe and gain a token.

Requiem: Once per day, after a melee kill, the Reaper can use a spell slot to curse his weapon to deal an additional 1d6 magical corrosive damage per level of the casting of that spell slot, lasting a number of rounds reflective of the the level of that spell slot (Ex. a 4th level spell slot can deal 4d6 additional corrosive damage for 4 rounds/ 40 seconds). This ability can be used during a combat action, taking the place of a cleave, and allowing the Reaper to continue cleaving afterwards, or at the end of a combat action. If this (+2)

ARCHON: This seems overpowered relative to the Ruinguard’s abilities, which last for just one round and do less bonus damage.

 

Thanks a lot! 

The class these powers were made for was initially designed to epitomize a grim, lone wolf trope. They were meant to be reapers who excelled in drastically uneven combat by gaining increasing fervor with each successful kill. Reaper's Momentum was meant to entice players into combat with buffs. But I tried to balance it with smaller drawbacks: not being able to retreat from melee combat, for example, or move more than your combat movement rate, regardless of the number of tokens or cleaves you have remaining. I anticipated this would quickly run overzealous players into the ground by biting off more than they could chew, stacking up tokens and preventing a retreat, before they realize they couldn never win. I paired it with Death's Call to further penalize these mistakes.

 

But, I can get tunnel vision easily. I also don't have the general knowledge to think about overall game balance, so your feedback really is invaluable. I'll adjust the costs and fix some some of the mechanics and make a follow-up reply.

 

 

 

Also, in regards to Requiem, would it being a once-daily versus the Ruinguard's abilities which are used at-will make any difference? Its length is drawn out but its damage is similar. And requiring a kill to proc the ability. 

Would dropping the damage to xd4 make it more balanced? 

Another option I can think of is adding dmg dealt based on the slain creature's HD. This would inherently limit the bonus if the character simply targetted a weaker opponent to trigger it. 

 

 

[quote="Alex"] Child of the Shadows [...] ARCHON: I don't understand how this power works. Do you automatically move silently, or are able to move silently as your level thief? [/quote]  

So the premise of this power was to function similar to the Fangs and Claws power. The more invested, the more monster-like you would become. This power was based on the idea being a creature of darkness. The character moves more freely in darkness, so much so as to appear to gain benefits over their opponents. There would be nothing truly magical about it until you invested enough into it -  a well-placed lamp would be sufficient to take this buff away. 

And I had originally intended that characters would innately move silently, without regard to thief level. In hindsight, this might be an unbalanced oversight.

ALSO...There's a wording fumble on my part about conflating literally 'being in a shadow' (cast when a light source is obsctructed by an object) and being in stealth or unseen.  I meant this power to literally just grant innate buffs and boons when a character was in an area of poor lighting. Either it be partially lit, poorly lit, or completely devoid of light. It's problematically vague

 

Requiem vs. Arcane Strike:

  • Arcane Strike can be used at any time with available spell slots; Requiem once per day. -1 to Requiem
  • Arcane Strike lasts one round, Requiem lasts one round per level of spell. +1 to Requiem
  • Arcane Strike deals 1d4 per spell level, Requiem deals 1d6 per spell level. +1 to Requiem

So I do think that adjusting Requiem to deal 1d4 instead of 1d6 would do the trick, yes.

It sounds like the rest you are re-working so I'll hold off on further comments. Cheers!

Abomination: Unless fully clothed and mute, the character is recognizable as an abomination. Lawful creatures are immediately unfriendly and creatures with lawful divinity are immediately hostile. The character is effectively unable to purchase healing spells from lawful clergy, else be immediately attacked. This effect also grants a -3 on reaction rolls against all neutral creatures. (-2)

Corrupting Touch: The character gains a +2 to attack rolls against lawful creatures and +1 to attack rolls against neutral creatures with good intentions. (+1)

Unholy Existence: The character suffers a -2 penalty on all saves made versus lawful divine spells. All attacks from lawful creatures do +1 bonus damage. (-1)

Death’s Call:  each time the deceased character has to roll on the Tampering with Mortality, he must make an additional save vs Death or lose half of the experience gained towards their next level. When this is failed with no experience, the character drops to his previous level, losing half of the experience towards the next level (Ex. A 5th level Reaper with no experience accumulated since their last level will become a 4th level Reaper with ½ the experience needed to get from level 4 to level 5). If dropped to level 0, the character's soul is consigned to hell, forever. (-3)

Death’s Agent: Gain twice the experience from enemies slain while being the sole source of direct damage. (+3)

Cursed Flesh: Immune to all forms of poisons, curses and disease, gains a +4 bonus to saving throws against Paralysis and Petrification and Death, and gains a +2 bonus to saves versus Spells (+2)

Hurry to the Grave: The character gains a +1 to attack damage against living and undead creatures already injured. This bonus becomes +2 at level 7, and +3 at level 13.  For the purposes of this ability, the character will always know whether or target has full Hit Points. This does not grant bonuses against constructs, elementals, or automatons. (+1)

Dominate Undeath: The character gains +2 to reaction roll against undead. The character gains the ability to turn undead as a cleric of his level, but unlike Clerics, cannot destroy undead inherently. Instead they use their deformed souls to dominate undead, indefinitely gaining control over the undead  they would otherwise destroy. Dominated undead can no longer be turned - only destroyed. If the character casts spells that require a saving throw versus Death, his targets suffer a -2 penalty on the save. When the character casts necromantic spells (such as animate dead), the spell effects are calculated as if he were two class levels higher than his actual level of experience. (+3)

Child of the Shadows

Cost

Ability

2.5

The character has the ability hide in shadows and move silently as a Thief of his level. If  in areas of poor lighting, the character may make this proficiency throw as a Thief two class levels higher that his actual level of experience.  So long as he remains in regions of poor lighting, the character can move in shadows without needing to reroll and does not suffer movement speed penalties while moving silently.  Whilst in areas of poor lighting, the character gains an additional +1 bonus to damage. Any lights, magical or otherwise, with sufficient intensity to dispel darkness or shadows will summarily dispel these effects, if the character is within range. (Ex. A chamber that is fully lit would not permit any abilities not allowed to a normal thief of his level.)

4

The character has the ability hide in shadows and move silently as a Thief of his level. If  in areas of poor lighting, the character may hide in shadows on a proficiency throw of 8+ and attempt to move silently on a proficiency throw of 12+.  If the players  So long as he remains in regions of poor lighting, the character can move in shadows without needing to reroll and does not suffer movement speed penalties while moving silently.  Whilst in areas of poor lighting, the character gains an additional +1 bonus to attack throws, saving throws and AC, and a +2 bonus to damage. Any lights, magical or otherwise, with sufficient intensity to dispel darkness and shadows will summarily dispel these effects, if the character is within range. (Ex. A chamber that is fully lit would not permit any abilities not allowed to a normal thief of his level.)

8

The character has the ability hide in shadows and move silently as a Thief two levels higher than his actual level of experience. If  in areas of poor lighting, the character may hide in shadows on a proficiency throw of 1+ and attempt to move silently on a proficiency throw of 4+.  So long as he remains in regions of poor lighting, the character can move in shadows without needing to reroll and does not suffer movement speed penalties while moving silently.  Whilst in areas of poor lighting, the character gains an additional +3 bonus to attack throws, saving throws and AC, and a +2 bonus to damage. Any lights, magical or otherwise, with sufficient intensity to dispel darkness and shadows will summarily dispel these effects, if the character is within range. Once daily, in areas of poor lighting or otherwise shrouded in shadows, the character can take on the aspect of a shadow: they become impervious to non-magic weapons and creatures encountering the character suffer a -3 penalty to surprise rolls. These effects endure while a character remains in areas of poor lighting and endures for 1 round afterwards. Being the direct target of the Light spell will immediately expose the character and end these effects.

 

Reaper’s Momentum: Each kill grants a momentum token, each token granting a +1 to all attack rolls. If in melee, this bonus gains an additional +1 to all attack rolls and +1 AC.  A momentum token is lost each round (every 10 seconds),  each time the Reaper is struck, and each time an attack is missed. The Reaper cannot retreat from melee while he has momentum. Each token can be used to increase cleave range by 5’; this does not permit a Reaper to move farther than allowed by his Combat Movement Rate and does not disregard distance penalties on ranged attacks. Tokens can be expended to perform additional cleaves (one token per additional melee cleave, two token per additional ranged cleave), exceeding the max allowed by the fighter’s Hit Die; this does not allow cleaves after effects that explicitly end the combat round (eg. Death Healing). If ranged, tokens can also be expended as a free action to deal +1 bonus damage per token on the next ranged attack. This empowered attack will end ability to perform additional cleaves for the remainder of the combat round. (+5)

 

Requiem: Once per day, after a melee kill, the Reaper can use a spell slot  to curse his weapon to deal an additional 1d4 magical corrosive damage per level of the casting of that spell slot, lasting a number of rounds reflective of the the level of that spell slot (Ex. a 4th level spell slot can deal 4d4 additional corrosive damage for 4 rounds/40 seconds). This ability can be used during a combat action, taking the place of a cleave, and allowing the Reaper to continue cleaving afterwards, or at the end of a combat action.  (+2)


 

So the last three are the ones that I'm most debating. Let me know your thoughts and what adjustments should be made. Thanks! 

 

I think the revised set of powers seems more workable. 

Reaper's Momentum is such a unique mechanic that I have difficulty analyzing it outside of actual play. 5 powers seems reasonable for its cost, but I would stand ready to adjust the power after playtesting exposes good and ill of it.